About

Office and home lighting can change based on anything from time of day to light levels from adjacent rooms and it can be difficult, even for a professional, to properly light oneself. You may be looking for a different lighting effect for yourself, wanting to successfully illuminate a product on the desktop, or seeking to demonstrate the functionality of a working model on camera. A video image containing too much shadow or lacking in depth of field can be distracting to your viewer. We put the quickest satisfying solution right on top your monitor.

Development Prototype

With a lightweight, easy-to-use design, a patent-pending two-pronged approach to lighting, and variable warm and cool light settings, the ShowLight revolutionizes how we look on screens.

The ShowLight provides a professional solution to personal lighting for everything from videoconferencing to personal use. It was designed by Jules Fisher, an internationally renown lighting designer of theater, film, and architecture, then developed and prototyped with Bran Ferren and his award-winning R&D group, Applied Minds. The ShowLight maximizes your professional impact and ensures that your are always looking your best in video conferences, streaming calls, and in captured webcam images. The light fits with any laptop computer to provide a two-point lighting approach with different programmable settings that eliminate shadows, brighten your features, and freshen your look.

Development Prototype

The ShowLight uses a fill light that clips in place over your computer screen in tandem with a spotlight on an extendable arm to light your features evenly and with depth. With presets for making the light warmer or cooler, you can easily adjust your image to look your best.

WHY SHOWLIGHT:

Confidence in your self-appearance can make every conversation more comfortable. Knowing that you are looking your best eases the strain of first time meetings, whether in a social or professional setting. Use the ShowLight to improve your image and better control how you appear as you broadcast yourself over video calls such as Skype, through video conference media, or for other webcam applications. It revolutionizes the standards for remote office work, business meetings over video-conference, video-based jobs such as tutoring, and even personal video chat.

FEATURES:

Concept Sketch Front View

Concept Sketch Back View

Fill Light: Even glow lights your face from the front to eliminate shadows.

Warm/Cool Lighting Presets: Allow you to control the degree and intensity of your lighting to compensate for low or high light levels of artificial or natural light nearby.

This two-light system delivers a controlled lighting situation, better than any means short of a professional studio experience, at your desk or in the privacy of your home.

DEVELOPMENT:

Early Build Sketches

Early Tests

In December of 2013, Jules Fisher, while working with his architectural lighting practice, formulated the idea for the ShowLight. Frustrated with the negative effect poor lighting had on the quality of video conference images, he began to sketch ideas for better personal lighting. Jules’ observations of attempts by himself and others to light themselves while videoconferencing guided him through different possible lighting solutions. He was on a quest for the best way to light the subject.

In January of 2014, he conceptualized the ShowLight. Realizing that the solution was the same on his monitor camera as it was on stage, he set about bringing the ShowLight into being. With the core concepts settled and parameters in mind, he entered into collaboration with internationally-awarded technologist and designer Bran Ferren, along with his talented team at Applied Minds. The fruit? Early working proof of concept models, several of which appear in our video.

First Prototype Sketch

First Prototype Build

In December of 2015, one of Jules' employees and collaborators, Alex Coulombe, arranged an introduction with James Bull, an entrepreneur with over forty years of experience. From there, James took on the project and has been actively building a team and developing the logistics for mass production.

After several years and iterations, the ShowLight is now ready for the public!

The ShowLight is a monitor lighting system that is easy to attach, easy to adjust, and easy to travel with. With a fully functioning prototype in place, we are working with our team to finalize how ShowLight will look.

Why Kickstarter:

Kickstarter is the perfect place for the ShowLight to launch. The community here attracts technology-focused people with an eye toward professionalism. You’re online for work and communication, video conferencing from your office, on the go, or from home. We want to engage with the incredible community here to finalize the design of the ShowLight on its way to the open market. Your feedback and ideas as backers guide our hand in ShowLights future designs.

We need your support because creating a physical product is an expensive endeavor. There are injection molds to make for the casings and enclosures and a custom circuit board to be produced to match our circuit design. Manufacturing tools must be brought into place to enable efficient production for our fulfillment and delivery system. If you will support us with a pledge and/or getting the word out you have our return pledge to do everything we possibly can to get your rewards to you by holiday season 2016.

Restatement of Rewards:

Restatement of Rewards

Risks and challenges

Every project or entrepreneurial project whether startup or veering to a new course with a new project comes with risk. We have as a team looked seriously at our product, the project of launching the lighting system through Kickstarter and the challenges of manufacturing the system with the support of international suppliers or producing the units primarily in the USA.

We believe that our risk analysis has been thorough and that we have successfully identified these elements which are most challenging to our enterprise and the difficulties which may present the largest challenges in our endeavor to build our product with the qualities which we are designing into the system and the fulfillment enterprise which will enable us to become ultimately successful.

The design and cutting of the molds and the subsequent fit of the parts once the injection process is complete always results in a bit of tension as the fit is precision and is partially dependent on the elasticity of the materials responding to individual shapes as anticipated, this is extremely important in parts that are designed to be snap fit which at this point of development some of our part are. Our selection of a highly practice mold design company helps relieve the uncertainty here.
The testing which is performed only after the initial run of parts. This is performed when we repetitively stress any and all moveable parts to determine an estimated life durability and can only be performed after the completion of a functional unit. We are therefore working with a supply chain whose members have built similar parts or supplied raw materials which have well known performance characteristics while performing in similar situations. We expect the lighting system to perform as designed, however our quality control testing will be rigorous.

Our evaluation of our beta units will be performed with our first delivered units and our staff assisted by outside assistance will thoroughly evaluate the actual performance of units in use with every standard we design into the lighting system examined with critical benchmarks noted and charted by our senior team. Our anticipation is that the units will meet all of our design goals and we very seriously anticipate supplying the 2016 Holiday Season.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $7,777 or more
About $7,777

Meet Jules for a Private Lesson in NYC

Personal 1 hr lighting session with Jules Fisher in NYC to learn how a professional would light your unique face. In addition receive 10 ShowLights, Thank you for being an exceptional supporter of ShowLight!